Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/65

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GEOLOGY between Adam's Rocks and the Dormington Quarries graptolites have been recorded. The Aymestrey Limestone is the rock that forms the great natural boundary of the Woolh ope ' Valley of Elevation.' As might be expected, sections are numerous, but that at Adam's Rock is as satisfactory as any. The Rocks themselves are of this Limestone, and from the debris at their foot many of the characteristic fossils may be collected. The Aymestrey Limestone then forms the rim, so to speak, of the valley. The outer slope, leading down to the undulating expanse of Old Red Sand- stone, is formed by the succeeding Upper Ludlow Shales and Temeside Beds. The Upper Ludlow Shales are exposed in the lanes in many places, as at Old Sufton, Prior's Court, Dormington, Perton Lane, Durlow (or Durley) Common, Bodenham, Gamage Ford, Yatton Farm, and elsewhere. The sections at Gamage Ford and Durlow Common are the best. In the lane at the former place the Upper Ludlow Shales are very fossiliferous, and it was from the Bone-Bed at their top that the Rev. H. Stone first procured those peculiar seed-like bodies to which Sir Joseph Hooker gave the name of Pachytheca.^^ Graptolites were obtained by Phillips from the top beds of the Yatton Farm Quarry, and from the bottom beds Dayia navicula. The Durlow Common section is in the lane leading from the common up the hill past ' Hazle.' Here there are some blue flaggy limestones, which have been quarried, intercalated in the shales. The beds above contain layers of unctuous clay, called locally ' Walker's Soap,' and it is this material that occasions the frequent landslips of the neighbourhood, the most notable of which was the one that occurred near Putley, and which was called 'The Wonder Landslip.' Descriptive and awe-inspiring indeed are the accounts furnished by some of the writers of earlier times. The Temeside Beds environ the area represented as Silurian on the map. The exposures are principally along the north-west and north-east sides of the inlier, as Superficial Deposits obscure much of the ground along the south- western. The Rev. P. B. Brodie '* has given much information concerning the distribution of these ' Passage-Beds.' In his time the principal section was at Perton. Here in a quarry at the foot of Perton Lane the Downton Castle Sandstone and Temeside Shales were exposed. The latter Brodie designated ' Olive Shales,' and obtained from them a number of species of Eurypterus, including a new one that was named by Dr. Henry Woodward Eurypterus Brodiei^^ and a specimen of Pterygotus Banksi. Capping the section were sandstone-beds containing Pachytheca and other plant-remains, which occupy the same stratigraphical position as the Fragment-Bed of the Ludlow district. These top beds of sandstone have been noticed near Tarrington, between Tarrington and Lower Marcle and at ' Hillfoot,' where the ' Olive Shales ' were observed beneath them. The Temeside Beds have also been seen at Putley Common, Putley, Chandler's Farm, in the lane between Lynedown and Gamage Ford, and near Welsh Court Farm.^^ The yellow Downton " Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. ix (1853), p. 12 ; see also Proc. Geo/. Assoc, xviii (1904), pp. 458-9. " Trans. Woolhope Nat. F.C. 1870 (1871), pp. 273-9 5 Qu^rt. Joum. Geol. Soc. xxv (1869), pp. 235-7. "i?^/>. Brit. Assoc. Liverpool, 1870, p. 91 ; Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. xxvii (1871), p. 261 ; Trans. ^I'oolhpe Nat. F.C. 1870 (1 871), pp. 276-7. '* Mem. Geol. Surv. i (1846), p. 37. I 17 3